Postage Due

These stamps were used when mail was sent without enough postage. If someone handed in an envelop at the post office, of course, they wouldn’t accept it without the correct postage. However, if someone put an envelop in a public mail box, rather than return the envelop to the sender, they would put postage due stamps for the deficient amount and deliver it, expecting the recipient to pay the cost of them. If they didn’t pay, only then would the envelop be returned to the sender.

Postage due stamps are almost always very plain, perhaps because their use was not encouraged. These have a very Nineteenth Century and smokey look to them. For some reason they remind me of cigars.

Note

As you can imagine, there aren’t many of these stamps available and they’re a bit expensive. Although I have two of them unused, I’m not sure they belong on the top row. I may have miscategorized them. They might belong on the third or the fifth row of this album page.

Contains 21 spots: own 3 – 2 unused, 1 used.

Stamp Details

The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.

spot	own	catalog	subject	description
1.1	✓	J1	Postage Due	1 (07 1879) postage due, brown
1.2	✓	J2	Postage Due	2 (07 1879) postage due, brown
1.3		J3	Postage Due	3 (06 1879) postage due, brown
2.1		J4	Postage Due	5 (05 1879) postage due, brown
2.2		J5	Postage Due	10 (09 1879) postage due, brown
2.3		J6	Postage Due	30 (09 1879) postage due, brown
2.4		J7	Postage Due	50 (09 1879) postage due, brown
3.1		J15	Postage Due	1 (01 1884) postage due, red brown
3.2		J16	Postage Due	2 (01 1884) postage due, red brown
3.3	✗	J17	Postage Due	3 (01 1884) postage due, red brown
3.4		J18	Postage Due	5 (01 1884) postage due, red brown
4.1		J19	Postage Due	10 (01 1884) postage due, red brown
4.2		J20	Postage Due	30 (01 1884) postage due, red brown
4.3		J21	Postage Due	50 (01 1884) postage due, red brown
5.1		J22	Postage Due	1 (01 1891) postage due, bright claret
5.2		J23	Postage Due	2 (01 1891) postage due, bright claret
5.3		J24	Postage Due	3 (01 1891) postage due, bright claret
5.4		J25	Postage Due	5 (01 1891) postage due, bright claret
6.1		J26	Postage Due	10 (01 1891) postage due, bright claret
6.2		J27	Postage Due	30 (01 1891) postage due, bright claret
6.3		J28	Postage Due	50 (01 1891) postage due, bright claret

Footnotes

Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).
Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.
Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.
To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.